Megan Thee Stallion ‘Wasn’t Getting Any Oxygen to My Brain’ When She Was Hospitalized During MOULIN ROUGE!

Megan Thee Stallion is opening up about being hospitalized early on in her stint in the Broadway production of Moulin Rouge! The Musical.  

The Grammy Award-winning artist, who became the first female-identifying performer to play Harold Zidler when the musical was on Broadway, abruptly exited the March 31 performance just a week into her run.  

“I didn’t want to let anyone down,” she told Marie Claire in an interview published Tuesday, September 29.

Still, the performer needed to put herself and her health first. 

As BroadwayWorld reported at the time, her representative said in a statement that “Megan started feeling very ill and was promptly transported to a local hospital,” where her symptoms were evaluated. 

Recalling the moment to Marie Claire, Megan explained, “I thought I was having a stroke. I wasn’t getting any oxygen to my brain, so my hands had froze. My face had froze. I was trying to tell everybody that I don’t think I’m okay. They only thought I was dehydrated.”  

Going into a demanding Broadway schedule, “I don’t think I was aware of how much I was going to be putting my body through,” she admitted. 

Friend and fellow Moulin Rouge! cast member Kelsie Watts explained that she saw Megan “was burning the candle at both ends.” 

“If she wasn’t in rehearsals, then she was going to work on her album, or she was going to do press or a photo shoot,” Watts explained. “A lot of people don’t realize, eight shows a week is just different. Until you do it, you can’t describe it, but it’s really freaking hard, and I think she was just exhausted.” 

During that Tuesday night performance when Megan was rushed offstage, Watts recalled seeing her costar after “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” and noticing something was very off. 

“I looked at her, and she had barely any color in her face, was shaking, was sweating, and I was like, ‘This is not normal,’ especially for her and for someone who does work as hard as she does and wants to push through,” Watts told the publication. “When I got offstage, I was like, ‘Something’s gonna happen. She’s not okay.’”  

Though Megan “wanted to keep doing the show,” she was eventually taken to a hospital, where it was determined that she was having a panic attack and was experiencing extreme exhaustion. 

Megan returned to the show days later and performed with the musical through May 1. 

In June, she joined the Broadway community on stage at the Tony Awards, telling Marie Claire, “It was amazing. I was so happy.”  

Moulin Rouge! The Musical played its final show on August 30 after more than 2,000 performances at Broadway’s Al Hirschfeld Theatre.